Jeff Mitchell: Happy 4th! Welcome to 'Little Beirut'

We're just under a month away from Independence Day and I'm already making plans to get out of town.

Don't get me wrong – like all proud Americans, I love celebrating the Fourth. I'll just be doing it in a city where fireworks are outlawed. All fireworks, that is.

Like they should be here in Salinas.

Everyone knows that last year's holiday was a disaster. Tons of outraged Salinans showed up at the council meeting after the holiday to complain about the proliferation of both illegal fireworks, 'safe and sane' fireworks and all of the noise and smoke.

There were parts of our city that resembled besieged Beirut at times, for cryin' out loud, some said. Whole areas were blanketed with smoke. The concussive sound of M-80 explosives (and larger) could be heard across the city.

There were just too many drunk or high Salinans out there literally playing with fire.

(And, gee, what could possibly go wrong under that scenario?)

And yes, yes … I realize that there is a difference between the just plain stupid and dangerous kind of "illegal" fireworks and the still colossally dumb, slightly less dangerous "safe and sane" fireworks that many of our charitable organizations sell from the wooden stands in our supermarket parking lots to raise funds.

So once again those of us not really into explosions, structure fires and burns can look forward to peeling our cats off the ceiling and pulling our dogs and other pets out from under the bed. It's a great way to enjoy our nation's birthday, eh?

But, wait, didn't that wascally wabbit City Council put its foot down and pwomise to do something about this?

Well, not really. The council did receive a somewhat milquetoast staff report on Feb. 4 of this year. Basically it recommended community education and street signs but little else citing the city's lack of funds.

And, mind you, it's not just the Fourth that we have to worry about but it's the two weeks leading up to the holiday that get out of hand. And, with the Fourth falling on Friday this year, might as well lump in the rest of that weekend in this discussion.

So, once again, citizens are going to have help cajole this City Council into action.

Here are a few ideas to consider taking to the debate:

• Have the chiefs of our Police and Fire departments invoke a call for mutual aide from the County of Monterey and from our neighboring cities so that we might be able to field 50 to 100 sworn public safety personnel on the holiday.

• "Deputize" all of the responding firefighters so they can all write those expensive $1,000 citations to people stupidly lighting off the illegal kind of fireworks. (And, yes, these guys doing this will need some help from PD with the less cooperative folks who have been drinking and who really aren't going to like the idea of getting a $1,000 citation.)

• Have all the firefighters "patrol" given sectors of the city in their fire trucks and vehicles – as versus staying ensconced in their station houses.

• Pay for all this by taxing the snot out of the charitable organization's sales of the "safe and sane" variety – to the tune of at least 50 percent – up from the current 7 percent.

(The charities, by the way, still will make a ton, they just won't make as much and they will become less dependent on a once-a-year fireworks sales project to bring in money.)

• The City takes its 50 percent tax revenues and plies all of that dough into two things and two things only: The cost of a municipal fireworks show at the Sports Complex and into the defraying the cost of the law enforcement effort.

• Give these same charities three or four years' lead time before phasing out the "safe and sane" variety entirely.

So, yes, in the short term, those of us not particularly into ground-based fireworks still likely will have to put up with the mess for a few more years, but eventually they, too, would be banned.

And, yes, the municipal show that we're envisioning wouldn't happen overnight, either. We'd want to develop the fund for a while so that it could eventually become self-sustaining.

Imagine how cool it will be to have a beautiful, free or low-cost, family-oriented aerial show that everyone could enjoy.

But, once again, these are just my ideas – and they will likely just stay ideas until decisive action by our City Council is taken.

Given that the holiday, again, is less than a month away (and you know the mayhem will start long before that) I wouldn't count on the city doing much of anything this year.

However, depending on how mad you all get, maybe you can persuade the council to take action about this situation by Independence Day 2015.

In the meantime, when the holiday does roll around, I'd get out there and wet down your roof. Keeping a fire extinguisher handy wouldn't be a bad idea, too.

Just sayin'.

Bad calls made on county Brown Act case

You may have heard by now that Superior Court Judge Kay Kingsley shot the second torpedo into the side of an effort to stop the Monterey County Board of Supervisors from violating the state's open meetings law, the Brown Act.

Late last week Kingsley denied a motion by the Save Our Peninsula Committee to force the county to make an audio recording of all closed door – and very likely illegal – employee personnel evaluation meetings they conducted.

Kingsley's decision was the second major setback for the plaintiffs. Last month, she ruled that the evaluation sessions did not violate the Brown Act. The judge said she came to that conclusion citing modern governmental management practices.

As I've said before, Kingsley's dead wrong on this case and it's my hope that she will be reversed on appeal.

She has even admitted her own misgivings about the county's opaque governmental practices. That said, Kingsley said that she had to agree that legal precedence which forced her to conclude that the actions of the supervisors was and is legal.

Ironically, Kingsley has reportedly said that she wouldn't be upset if plaintiffs appealed the case.

Meanwhile, however, all sides will be back in court Aug. 25 (with a new judge – Kingsley will be retired by then) to consider the committee's final request that the actions of the board do, in fact, violate the Brown Act.

But it's questionable whether the plaintiffs will have a chance atprevailing, as Kingsley ruled earlier that they had no right to examine a redacted "minute book" of one of the secret performance reviews carried out by the board with county Water Resources Agency Manager David E. Chardavoyne.

Bottom line here? I point directly to the Board of Supervisors when I say they shouldn't hide behind the poor advice of county General Counsel Charles McKee or behind Kingsley's ruling.

It's this five-member body that will decide if it wants to support transparency in government and or just continue on doing the people's business behind closed doors.

Ultimately, folks, just like the fireworks issue above, it will, again, all depend on how upset you get and whether or not you decide to personally get involved.

I hope you jump in on both cases.

Jeff Mitchell covers Salinas Valley politics and government. Under the Dome, a reported opinion column, appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in print and online. Email him at jemitchell@thecalifornian.com. For quick political hits, check out Under the Dome – The Blog, available most every day at: www.theCalifornian.com